


Hajime Hinata is a jackass-idiot and Kazuichi Soda has to deal with that idiot.

by xXPokefictionXx_isnt_that_bad_of_a_name



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, How Do I Tag, One-Sided Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24463711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXPokefictionXx_isnt_that_bad_of_a_name/pseuds/xXPokefictionXx_isnt_that_bad_of_a_name
Summary: Hajime Hinata has no reason to do anything, so he doesn't. He just sits and thinks about the same things, as if that would give him a new result. Kazuichi Soda is pretty tired of seeing that, and ends up in an argument.~-~-~-~I uploaded this on mobile so the tags and formatting might be fucky, I'll edit it on a computer tomorrow or something to add the "X character (mentioned)" tags and such, but Hajime and Kazuichi are the only characters who properly appear so only they get tagged for now.This is a remake of a fic I made last year with the same premise, albeit with significantly less a focus on the "One-Sided Implied Hajime/Nagito", although I didn't drop it entirely, because this fic in the first place was a birthday present for a friend who gets off to that stuff or something. Unlike last year this one is actually out on their birthday, though.Contains spoilers for basically the entirety of Danganronpa 2, crossposted on fanfiction dot net under the name "FueledByNightmares"
Kudos: 5





	Hajime Hinata is a jackass-idiot and Kazuichi Soda has to deal with that idiot.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xXPokeFictionXx_Is_A_Horrible_Username](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXPokeFictionXx_Is_A_Horrible_Username/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Hajime Hinata is an idiot and Kazuichi Soda isn't as much of an idiot.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19145230) by [xXPokefictionXx_isnt_that_bad_of_a_name](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXPokefictionXx_isnt_that_bad_of_a_name/pseuds/xXPokefictionXx_isnt_that_bad_of_a_name). 



> I needed like, a motivator or something, something to remind myself to get this damn thing done before the end of the month so I wrote most of the author's notes in advance yelling at myself, even though they didn't work. Like, at all, I made a lot of this fic TODAY. This is sort of like, a re-imagining of an old dumb fic I made for a friend's birthday with some emphasis on one of their favorite ships, one I was didn't like when I made the original and I don't really care for now, although since I don't dislike it and have given it more thought, maybe this'll be better this time. Of course, this sort of went completely off the rails so I debated whether or not to even tag it as that. This was honestly more of a test than a birthday present, but I'm still releasing it on their birthday because happy birthday, I'm sorry. I hated this project through most of its creation (and not because of the ship) but I swore I'd get it done so I made like 90% of it this month even though I started it in like March. Hope you all enjoy this pretentious crap that probably has nothing to do with Hajime, it gets marginally better at the end. Bare with me if a lot of, like, the first half of the story might contradict itself, that was for the most part intentional, and again, like halfway through it becomes real thoughts and emotions an actual person might have. Not to say that part is good either, but whatever, once I stopped hating it it was really fun to make even if it's far from what I'd consider a good end result.
> 
> Don't ask why Ruruka of all Future Foundation members is mentioned or referenced multiple times. There's. There's no reason. None at all. Noooo reason. Not one.

Every morning, there was something else on his mind. Something he dreamt about, usually, sticking itself to his head all morning. He didn't have any luck, certainly not the special fortune to wake up with something stupid on his mind, be it manga or music or what makes some pancakes fluffy and thick. That is, to obviously say, he was always thinking about something that sat in special place in his head, a place that looked like dry scabs and smelled like a slaughterhouse. A place he was always visiting because he wasn't lucky.

Without luck, the best he could hope for in the morning from that special, bloody crevice in his brain was a memory or dream of Hiyoko, making demands and trying to pick fights while playing up her small and cute appearance to stop him from acting. Whenever he woke up thinking about her, her bitchy personality and inability to owe up to anything weren't what he focused on, blinding himself with nice thoughts and thinking about how she tried to change, and the reason that he put up with her to begin with was Mahiru.

That was exactly how he wanted to start the day off, with Mahiru in his mind. "Agh, jeez, boys" Mahiru, "Do you even know how to do your own laundry?" Mahiru, "I'll make sure to teach you how to take photos" Mahiru. Not even the worst thing he could think about, far from it, it was almost a blessing that she was on his mind today. She was still a step further back in his head than Hiyoko was, but he wasn't going to complain about such a godsend of something to think about in the morning.

You know, if that was actually what Hajime Hinata woke up thinking about. "After we all get out of here" Mahiru. But no. As soon as he'd fallen asleep last night, his mind was focused somewhere completely different, only thinking back to the photographer for a moment.

Hajime got out of bed, standing in place as if something caught his eye, yet not paying attention to his room at all. It was simply where he woke up, and where he'd gone to bed last night. It didn't matter to him one way or another, he certainly didn't care if something was slightly off, and he probably wouldn't even notice if there was. The room was just "personal" belongings, a few copies of pictures from his killing school trip, and the walls and floors he had as soon as he was thrust into the ended world, nothing he paid enough attention to to notice if there was something off. Even if he'd done a bit with the room, it felt like a canvas too far away to analyze or care about, much less flick ink onto to make it his own. He was only standing and staring because he got distracted just thinking about the fact he was doing that.

Hajime finally decided to do something, walking to the bathroom to stare in the mirror, whatever minimal improvement that was over looking at nothing. Sometimes what the mirror had for him to gaze at was Hajime Hinata, with messy hair and a thin figure surrounding a tired face of somebody who didn't actually have a reason to be looking in the mirror everyday. Sometimes it was an even more boring man speaking nothing but bullshit, as little a difference there was between him and the other man. Sometimes it was Mahiru's freckled face and red-hair, sometimes it was a dribbling splash of crimson overtaking the mirror to blend with that red, sometimes it was a monochrome bear, cackling like a mad clown. Sometimes it was Chiaki.

He didn't need this this morning, or any morning. Hajime dragged himself out of the bathroom after god knows how long, making his way over to his room's door. Again, he had to practically drag his own arm onto the shiny, metallic door handle. It sent a chill down his spine every time he put his hand on it, no matter what, he couldn't get used to it. The cold chill from grabbing his own door and the thoughts that came with it. It felt like a dead man, a body. A sacrificed person, one with their own life to lead, their own issues and talents and quirks he could spend all day drawing parallels with if he really wanted, who was now nothing but a corpse, an object.

Or... the cold of the door handle was somebody who was never alive to begin with. It could be either.

That's what was in his mind today. The ice cold door handle, or just ice cold hands. The cold hands of someone who wasn't ever even alive, but firmly believed in the future, and hope. Whether they were literally or just metaphorically never alive, they certainly weren't here now, and no matter whether they deserved life or death, he was reminded of them today touching the door handle. Of course, thinking about anyone or anything else when he woke up would still make him freeze up at the door handle, and that certainly wouldn't be changing any time soon, if his own head apparently had anything to say about it. That was his future, for as far as he could see it. The future he wasn't thrust in to, but the future he personally created.

Hajime forced himself to open the door... something he did every morning, somehow. Everyday he was able to do it. Everyone was able to do it. It didn't make him special, or important, or worth anything, but at least he could do it. It used to not be something he'd get hung up on, it was just another step, a step he didn't give any thought before, and it was still a step to the future, one that reminded him how stupid it all seemed, and how much he held onto that stupid.

That stupid, gushing out of the gap in his head that made him stare in the mirror and seize up when faced with opening his door.

In the end, though, it was already open, with a day of similar, struggles on the other side. Struggles he could deal with, struggles that arguably didn't even exist, and struggles that would make him want to tear his hair out if he cared about them.

Facing struggles that weren't even real problems, creating his own lumps in the road made of problems, and wondering if he was self pitying or self loathing, among other things, was how Hajime spent his "great" days of freedom with his life ahead of him. It was all a waste of time, but he wouldn't be doing anything else with himself in the seconds that went by, or else these struggles wouldn't exist. His schedule consisted of the occasional odd job Sonia told him about, but other than that, he had nothing but his thoughts to occupy himself with other than repetitive, pointless thought that consumed him. Nothing of worth was ever said, but flipping through the same books of any train of thought he could possibly have was what he did, knowing exactly that, and still doing it anyway.

It wasn't that he didn't believe in something. He believed he had a future, he believed in himself or his ability to do anything, he couldn't possibly not, but whether he cared was another matter. You didn't care about how shoes worked, but one look at the laces could tell you everything you could possibly know. Hajime knew it was true that their hope lived on... but he cared about that "hope" as much as he cared about making his shoelace analogy make sense.

One day was just one day, one day where he was alive, Fuyuhiko and Akane and Kazuichi and Sonia were alive, one day where the act of being gave him the feeling of hope somebody could even worship. Then another day was another day, so many things were in his head, in that dirty, bloody hole with his school trip's memories, to sort out, but he waded through it, still ever hopeful. Now, his shelves were all organized, and his interest in looking forward was put away on some shelf in the back, repressed in his mind in some corner he apparently didn't care to visit, instead pulling out the easy-to-reach novels about why he was still here or why there was ever a fight about "Hope" or "Despair".

Hope, Despair... the "ideals" that people spoke of, as if they could be simplified like "killing is wrong" or "an educated populace is a more useful populace", being satisfied with what will happen or living for nothing but unfiltered, destructive fun... that's all the argument boiled down to with whatever idiots actually fought the battle. He, and probably most anyone else, was somewhere in the middle of the so-called absolute good and pointless evil, maybe on a different scale altogether. A second, different scale that almost everyone must've walked at some point, one of not wanting to do anything.

And with everyone who'd taken that path, none of them ever bothered to tell the directions for how to get off.

Hajime had taken a few steps from his room, a few steps he'd learned that he only managed because he wasn't thinking about them. Thinking about why he was doing what he was doing would just make him do even less, and doing the pointless was at least better than only thinking. There was nothing about him, nothing about anyone, that he should be thinking about, and there was nothing he wanted to be thinking about, but thinking wasn't something he could choose not to do, whether he got anything from it or not. To not think at all was to not be, and the only thing he still had was his being, even if he didn't know what that was.

Trying to shove aside the thoughts, to let them be an unconscious act and not a driving force, didn't do any good, forcing away thought was just a roundabout way of focusing harder. His best bet to eliminate a focus on thought, was a toaster in the bathtub, or a knife over the sink. Maybe he could tear himself open, complete the imitation murder as best he could. Nobody died in a very special punishment, fitting of the Ultimate Despair. If he really wanted to, he could organize something like that, as Sonia and everyone else cried futility of another killing never happening again.

But he hadn't chosen that option. It may have been the best solution to his problem... of course, he didn't have a problem. He just had organized shelves and a future. A future he couldn't do anything with except struggle with while walking down the hall.

Hajime didn't know how long he'd repeated the same things today, but it was likely the same as always. His morning stuck on chilling, thrilling death had lead him to another train of thought, one that no matter how he put it, was the exact same thing over and over. All he had to say was "He had a future, but..." and he could stop thinking all day, but thought was always there, the very thing responsible for your ability to move forward, and everything that stopped you. Every single day for however long it'd been, he wrestled with his own thought, his own future, over what to do with his life, and he repeated that fact endlessly, covering it with a new coat as if that changed it any.

The one good thing to come out of his fight with thought was some perspective, knowing exactly that thought itself, that HE, was the problem. If only that perspective told him what to do with his future, instead of stopping him from making anything out of it. But you couldn't stop thinking, you couldn't stop your viewpoint, slide it out and slap a new one in like a CD Player.

Hajime had walked down the hall to a turn at the building's corner, a short distance, comparatively speaking, but he'd managed to fit a lot of thought into the walk. On the first day, he needed to learn the new layout, on the second, he'd memorized most of it, on the third, he knew it all by heart, but hadn't gone anywhere else since about the twelfth, giving him all the time in the world to think about nothing. The Future Foundation's base on Jabberwock Island was his new home, possibly forever, until he died from malnutrition or maybe even a heart attack if he was lucky, and he'd adjusted and accepted that fact already. Long hallways like an office building, with metallic doors and the job to produce goods for the rest of the organization was his home.

Several times, the invitation to work elsewhere came about, Future Foundation's 1st division thought he'd be a good leader, and new investigators into special crimes were apparently always appreciated, but seeing as he was still here, he turned them all down. His work was in some part of the 8th division supplying resources, something he could change at any moment, but there was nothing he could gain out of it. He at least had his grasp on a worthless-to-him future, throwing away even that seemed asinine.

By now, the path to where he went in the morning was as familiar as the path to his favorite restaurant from his parent's house all those years ago. Hajime took a seat at the end of his path, like he was in the Hotel's Lobby on his school trip. It was basically the same place, a balcony looking down on the island with a few tables and chairs. He didn't particularly enjoy the view, but it got him thinking, which wasn't exactly good, but thinking was all he could do, even if it didn't do anything to solve the problem thinking itself caused.

Sitting in front of him on the table was what looked like scrambled eggs and a giant muffin, with something forcefully shoved into the later. Sonia always had the weirdest methods of placing down cards, almost like a game. With his own thoughts momentarily gone, Hajime reached for the card, yanking it out of his food to glance over.

"Kaz helped today, I woke up a bit late. I hope you enjoy the muffin, there should be more in the kitchen if you want them. Talk to me later if you get the chance, also!~" After that, Sonia had drawn out a pentagram... if Sonia even made this note. The handwriting was off, as was the language, and she drew a pentagram already, if he remembered right, after something about burning a piece of bacon she then fed to Akane. Still, who else would even bother with him? Kazuichi kept to himself, and Akane and Fuyuhiko spent most of their time with one another both during and after their school trip, Sonia was the only person he knew well.

Even if it was different from usual, Sonia could just be messing with him still. Hajime stuffed the card away, ignoring the gesture of effort his friend put into it, instead eating his breakfast, and resuming his thought.

Plenty of people lived out their lives, doing what they wanted to do, putting a bit of thought into everything, but otherwise never musing as much as he did. Well, moreso leading lives revolving less about the musings than he did, but he could probably recount every single thing he'd thought about since Day One, and not just because it was all the same. It was another thing to think about, and something he'd already thought about.

It was thought like this that kept him from enjoying life as is, and the future as you should, but acknowledging a problem didn't solve a problem, and you couldn't solve a problem that didn't even exist. Hajime could think he wasn't enjoying what his friend had done for him, and put all of his focus into attempting to savor every bite of eggs, but then his mind would be on the man he knew nothing about instead. Forcing thought away... he'd already thought about why that didn't work several times this week, the last time as recently as five minutes ago.

Hajime took a bite out of the massive muffin... certainly different from what Sonia usually made, far sweeter, but it still tasted fine. It certainly wasn't amazingly ultra special, either, it didn't suddenly hypnotize him into a good feeling, but it was certainly edible, and then some. That was probably the most he would think about the muffin, his mind returning to something far more bitter.

Bitterness could be called delectable, if you disguised it with a lie of sweetness, then something more savory. Talking in a food analogy wasn't to disguise the subject his mind was on, but to spice up his way of thinking about it, even if that hadn't ever worked before. The bitter lie of something more pleasant accurately described a few things, but like Mahiru, Hiyoko was only a fleeting thought in his head today. There was no mistaking there was life in the short, annoying, lonely figure with bright-yellow hair and a kimono that wrapped around her arms that were as good for throwing fists as they were for dance routines, and he wasn't thinking about life.

...There was definitely something off about today's breakfast, but whether it was poison or a prank or Sonia was just feeling off, Hajime couldn't reason it out. The best way to answer the question would be to ask Sonia herself, she probably had something for him to do anyway. It was possible that she was still in the dining hall, and if not, trying to find her could take hours, she had to get around quickly with how busy she always seemed to be, probably because it was just like her to always be doing something.

Thinking about Sonia's livelihood brought Hajime, again, back to the subject of life, and a lack thereof. You couldn't call wrapping yourself up in a delusion a way of living, especially if you knew you were doing it, although Hajime could relate to the feeling now. Back when he first had his questions of delusion, he couldn't possibly comprehend telling others of a social hierarchy you conceived to push out your own jealousy.

That'd be a funny thing, if he were just jealous, but he wasn't the same kind of selfish, crazy bastard. He wasn't lucky, he wasn't sold on his insane solution, the only thing Hajime Hinata shared was being stuck, stuck like Nagito Komaeda.

Another difference between them was that Hajime was alive, or he used to be, anyway. Saying Nagito was ever alive would be an insult to life. Ironic that thinking about things... about people, like Nagito, was what stopped him from living.

Hajime had already thought about how identifying a problem didn't solve it, but it didn't make it any less true that he had found the problem. Saying it was hard to get his thoughts on doing anything, on living, when people like Nagito were on his mind was an understatement.

Hajime hadn't meant to go this direction, but with what he was thinking about today, it wasn't surprising. There was nothing he ever dealt with this way, minus the giant room at the end of the hall. The rest of the building may have been a light shade of grey with murky carpets, but the way he'd ended up going was a room of solid black.

That wasn't to say it was a hopeless room, but it was a dark shade compared to the rest of the building, even with the lights on and all of the monitors running the Neo World Program. It was an amazing feat of technology, but Hajime's first thought about it wasn't how interesting it was, it was waking up in the room with Sonia and Akane and Makoto Naegi all standing over him. That was when he woke up, and that was when he stopped living.

Hajime would like to say he never considered that Nagito might have been the same way, but he'd given it thought already. With that thought, he stood firm that the lucky student was always a dead man.

Finally arriving at the end of the path, Hajime stood right outside the Neo World Program's chamber, you could call it. Wires and monitors were plastered on the walls and strewn on the floor, with identical glass cases surrounding a central computer more complicated than the issue Hajime had presented himself with in his time of being but a dead man. The room was so untidy that Hajime almost didn't notice there was already someone here, but obviously, this was an ideal room for communicating, so he wasn't terribly surprised.

"Yeah... that's really all there is to report. Nothing interesting, no shipping accidents or alien invasions or anything." A loud voice bounced around the room, hitting Hajime's ears, although only briefly catching his interest. "I guess I made some huge muffins this morning, and they didn't taste awful!"

He could attempt to tune out the conversation, it didn't have anything to do with him, but nothing, much less his somehow deafening thoughts could stop Kazuichi Soda's voice. Even if he was... 21 or 22 at this point, his tone was still as bright and loud as his hair, and the noises spilling out of his mouth were still high-pitched and squeaky. With those familiar features came differences, however, with darker clothes contrasting his hair and glasses on his head, not to mention Kazuichi's self-built robotic arm.

Waving around his five wired fingers on his silver-steel hand, the genius mechanic spun around a bit in an office chair, talking to a monitor. At first, Hajime thought that he was talking to an AI, but he caught a glimpse of who was on-screen. Someone with a body, a self-created career, and some weird affinity for Kazuichi, apparently, it both looked and sounded like her smile was genuine for once, but Hajime didn't care enough for the woman to actually know if she really liked the technician or was just humoring him. He didn't have any reason to think about Future Foundation's 8th Branch outside of what he did for it, and certainly no reason to pay the Ultimate Confectioner his mind, plus, he didn't come here to eavesdrop on a classmate to confirm or deny his pointless query.

The bored man shut off his focus on Kazuichi's conversation, returning to his own business. Hajime could still hear the talk, but he wasn't processing whatever stupid story or bad flirting attempt the mechanic was going on about. Maybe it would do him some good to focus on such an irrelevant matter... as he thought awhile ago, but trying to focus was still trying to focus, and he would be back on proper thought within minutes.

Hajime didn't even have any plans to come here, but he had already found where he had planned to go, walking around the room so he could see Kazuichi's other side, regardless of if he wanted to or not. He caught his fellow classmate throwing him a look, before returning to his conversation about god knows what. Hajime hadn't walked over to ogle at Kazuichi's other side, obviously, so he broke off his focus from his classmate at the same time.

Hajime had the order of everything in the room memorized, knowing exactly where all of his classmates were lying in coma. He himself was between Sonia and Nekomaru, and after the Ultimate Team Manager, Mahiru Koizumi and Nagito Komaeda. Mahiru was what he'd thought about yesterday, sitting in a glass cage, crumbling away. Nagito was what he was thinking about today, already rancid to the core.

Working for hope, fighting against despair, lies of selflessness or whatever else nice he liked to pretend he had, and blind praise to something he despised in the name of hope. All wrapped in a sickly thin figure, a sickness of both mind and body. Every word that came out of the ill boy's mouth stuck to Hajime's brain, like a sweet sugar coating completely overused, and that sugary stickiness was often, if not always, on his mind. The things he had to say about his own bitterness, it was as fascinating as it was repulsive and asinine.

Nagito was a putrid stench masked with something much better smelling, to put it into a few words, but Hajime had plenty more to say about him. He wasn't just masked with a better scent, he tried to be polite and sound sensible, just to draw anyone in who fell for his ruse. Some would compare him to a raisin cookie, others would refer to him as a venus fly trap, but to him, Nagito was the formerly-walking dead. The way he talked was the only thing that separated him from a corpse. His body had decayed, his hair was devoid of nutrients and his brain had already rotten into a twisted, worthless, insane thought process. No matter how long Hajime heard him go on, nothing he said made any sense.

He certainly tried to make sense of what was simple logic to the dead man, but it just seemed like a damn cry of jealousy. He was twisted, certainly, but his inane talent worship fell apart with the tone in his voice, and the look in his eyes, whether he hid them with his eyelids or let the crazy come flying out anyway. Nagito was convinced he was hopeless... that was one true similarity between them.

"...Hey."

"What do you want?" Hajime gave a glance to the young man standing above him, turning away after confirming Kazuichi was talking to him. A second after he'd looked away, Hajime had processed what he'd just glanced at, looking back to confirm Kazuichi's expression. "...Sorry. Just spit it out."

"What the hell, Hajime?!" The first time, it was a face of annoyance, snapping to anger by the time he'd looked back again. "You can't just say something like that!"

"I apologized, what else do you want?" Hajime responded, trying to think of how best to get Kazuichi to leave. "A song about how great you are for making me muffins this morning?"

"I dunno, maybe not being a jerk in the first place..." The mechanic muttered, putting his real hand to his head. "I guess an apology is better than Hiyoko ever gave me, so you're better there..."

Only Kazuichi had the power to mention unrelated people at the worst times. It'd been only an hour or so since he'd woken up, but it felt like ages since Hiyoko was at the front of his mind. Now she was there again, right with Nagito, Mahiru, Chiaki, and this machine-obsessed idiot. Anybody wouldn't exactly be nice about something like that happening, an apology was plenty, especially if it was Kazuichi.

"What do you want?" If there was anything Kazuichi could do well, it was blend his thoughts into a giant mess, leaving Hajime unable to think of a better solution than to humor him to get him to leave. "You came over to talk to me, what do you want?"

"I just came over to check on you, is that wrong?" His annoyed tone spoke a bit of a different story, but whatever self-righteous ideas he had in his head made him wanting to help a reasonable explanation.

"I'm fine, you can go now." With any luck, the interaction would end then and there. Hajime turned his gaze back to the ground, despite not hearing a reply or the sound of footsteps leaving the room. He, again, glanced up at Kazuichi, who wasn't upset or enraged or anything, he was just standing there. "...Well?"

"Look… Hajime..." Kazuichi muttered, putting his other, fake hand to his chin. Hajime had no idea what he was about to say, but knowing who he was talking to, it would be a half-assed attempt to try and fix an issue the mechanic made up in his head. "I get it, man, but come on, you gotta start… y'know, thinking about something else."

"Yeah, let me just start doing that." He could practically taste the tense feeling as it came out of his mouth, and he could certainly see in his mind the image of his own annoyed face. Who wouldn't be, when presented such a solution? Nobody sensible, nobody sensible would try and stop themself. "Try and start thinking about something else, as if I haven't already done that-!"

"And just 'cause it didn't work gives you the right to act like an asshole?!" Suddenly, the scaredy-cat's roar came out. Kazuichi had gone from confused to angry and passionate with a simple insult to his ego. "You aren't the only person who knew somebody y'know! Hell, you're not even the person to know Mahiru!"

"But despite that, you're all going about your lives." Hajime let the truth slip out, somebody had to speak it. "Call me out for not being right in the head or whatever the hell else you want to say, but don't say we're all in the same situation."

"Do you even know who we are, dumbass?" Kazuichi let it all loose, aiming for Hajime with whatever insult he could muster… nothing more than vague, common phrases. "Do you think we haven't been down here as much as you have?!"

Kazuichi himself, definitely not. Calling him self-centered wasn't accurate, but his own being was definitely his top priority, and he was too afraid of everything to bother opening up to somebody properly. The chill and friendly facade he'd always used was just his way of dealing with the world. Akane was over it already, she'd learned her lesson about grief, and she could dial it back if she needed to. Fuyuhiko… Fuyuhiko had someone he knew his entire life down here, but at the same time, he'd already taken charge in working tirelessly to help the Future Foundation, his life had changed, and so had he. Sonia...

On Jabberwock Island, they were supposed to make friends, according to a suspicious rabbit claiming custody of them by force. As soon as Hajime lowered his guard, any hope of lasting friendships was destroyed, same as the rabbit. But he tried, and a few other people tried with him. That was obvious, of course, he'd done nothing but think about them. Mahiru Koizumi, Hiyoko Saionji, Chiaki Nanami... and by his own twisted belief of bonding and growing stronger, Nagito Komaeda. There was also Sonia Nevermind, who he'd barely given a thought all day, the sweet girl who shed tears every single time blood was spilled.

It was certainly something else, something different to think about. Of course, that wasn't to say he hadn't thought about Sonia before. It wasn't some amazing revelation to be thinking about the Ultimate Princess, he did it often. Sonia was in a special place in his mind, too, a beautiful smile from a beautiful soul... fixed in the same place in his head as the rest of the killing school trip.

...No, that... that wasn't right, it can't've been. If Sonia was part of that horrid, scarred and scorched section of his head, dedicated to wasting his time and letting him think, then he'd probably be thinking about her a bit more. Hajime had just remembered Sonia had supposedly wanted to see him earlier, that was what he should have been doing today.

"Oh, I know that look!" Kazuichi drew Hajime back to reality with his sudden shouting, although he yelled so often calling it "sudden" might be a mislabel. "You're just thinking about Miss Sonia, aren't you!"

Of course, he'd thought SOME about Sonia earlier today, before forgetting all about her and walking to the room he was now in, receiving the wonderful advice to think about her. Thinking about Sonia slightly differently was as much a solution as saying he kept cutting his own solutions to ribbons and pretending that stopped it and solved the problem. Saying, repeating, that he was too focused, or too unfocused, or whatever, on the problem, and acting like that was a good solution and not something Kazuichi would suggest, was a fantastic idea. Just as fantastic as any other idea Kazuichi's head came up with, spewing out new ideas while acting as a black hole for any real, good thought. Good thought that was reasonable thought, thought that wasn't a distraction, a waste of time or something you actually paid any mind, just something that HELPED you move forward, and Hajime almost hoped he'd finally found a way to ignore thought. Thought was, after all, what your brain used consciously and not to make you do anything, and it was certainly not something to be focused on itself, but he was still focusing on thought, not any sort of solution he could've pretended to have had, and certainly not the "Isn't that what you just fucking told me to do, jackass?!" he had just blurted out.

"H-Hey, asshole!" There was a hint of fear in Kazuichi's voice, rightfully so with how close Hajime was to letting him have it, but he still tried to stand his ground after being insulted. "Ch-Chill out!"

Hajime hadn't considered what he'd just said, letting it spill out completely unfiltered, and completely truthful. He was just thinking about exactly what Kazuichi told him to do, and like Kazuichi always was, he got angry over it anyway.

"Alright, let me just calm down." Expressing his anger at Kazuichi would be near impossible, but that wasn't going to stop him any from letting him have it. "Calm down and let Kazuichi start acting all pretentious about something he doesn't know anything about-!"

"Be quiet!" Kazuichi stood over Hajime, trying to look intimidating, only being at all successful because the other young man was squatting down. "Why don't you actually try instead of just whining about it! How the hell did you get so lazy after all the stuff you did during the school trip?"

Hajime stood up straight, matching Kazuichi, only to tower over the now-cowering mechanic, even if Hajime was the shorter of the two. "What the hell do you think I've been doing? Sitting on my ass because I want too, tired of carrying your ass through the trials or finally getting to rest after surviving that goddamn killing game?"

"W-Well..." Kazuichi sounded desperate, practically shrinking as defeat sunk in. "...Coming over to sit next to them all day isn't going to help you with that."

"What else am I supposed to do?" Hajime's temper started flowing away, but Kazuichi was still speaking a bunch of stupid crap. "Just... stop, suddenly? The chances of me being able to just do that... forget chances, I already know it won't work. That's exactly what I've been doing!"

"Doing nothing, yeah..." Kazuichi muttered back, before returning his direct focus to Hajime, locking eyes and probably soon fists. "If you were trying anything, it'd be fucking working."

"What the hell do you know? Are you going to tell me I'm already right here, perfectly fine, and that I don't have a damn thing to complain about just because I maybe changed? Or do you have some other nonsense even I can't imagine-!"

Hajime felt a sudden stinging in his cheek, both throbbing and cold, too odd of a shape to be a hand... but what else did Kazuichi have to hit him with other than his fake one? Hajime was almost impressed he had the guts, wondering what he just said that could've possibly set him off, Kazuichi was no stranger to having his ideas insulted, but maybe that specific example of something that made no sense hit him hard, wouldn't surprise him if Kazuichi thought that was actually reasonable.

It looked as if Kazuichi was preparing another attack, and Hajime watched, waiting to see if he would, only to be met with the mechanic reaching elsewhere.

Kazuichi reached to his side, shoving his hand in his pocket, without letting a single drop of rage fade from his eyes. He pulled out was he was looking for, which captured Hajime's interest fully... a picture of the Ultimate Musician, throwing up a peace sign and sticking out her tongue, and leaning on somebody else, somebody with similarly dyed hair, and a very bright fashion sense, leaving Hajime utterly confused.

"When... when was this taken?"

"On the island." Trying to keep in his mild shock at the focus of the photo, Hajime took in the background scenery, it was definitely reminiscent of the sandy beaches of death paradise. "I had photos printed out, just like you did with whatever you had of Hiyoko or whoever else. You aren't the only person with friends."

Hajime stayed silent, still trying to take in the picture. As far as he'd known, Kazuichi had barely interacted with anyone outside of Chiaki. As far as he knew, from what he'd assumed. The glory of thought, trying to justify its' own existence by pretending to be a new problem like nobody had ever before experienced, making the guess that his classmate didn't have any similar problems.

"Ibuki liked you a lot, you know." Kazuichi let his anger flow away, pushed down the stream by a sudden tone shift, and a wave of sadder emotions. "She was always going on about how cool you were or how you took charge whenever anything happened... hell, was kinda jealous."

Hajime finally opened his mouth again, needing to get a question off his mind. "How much time did you spend together?"

"We hung out like an hour or so almost every day after the first trial, and she gave me some solid advice and stuff." Kazuichi answered. "Maybe that's why I was so on-edge in the stupid tower. Seriously, she talked about you a lot, and she thought you were gonna go insane if you kept focusing on who you were and what your talent was."

"So?" In any other context, with any other tone, responding with a "So" would be as rude as taking the photograph of their friend and tearing it in half, but Hajime just stepped away, with a softer voice coming out of his mouth. "You... You've apparently got it all figured out, what am I supposed to do?"

"Like I just said, you're not doing anything, so doing anything is basically the solution." Kazuichi sat down, looking up, then back at his own eye level when Hajime did the same. "'Course, because you're not doing anything, I can't say any more than that, I don't know what your problem is because you don't talk to anyone except Sonia."

"It's that..." Wording it out should be easy, with how much he repeated the same thoughts again and again, with no new solution presenting itself. "...I just don't want to do anything, which is stupid... but, that's all I can think of, analyzing my entire damn head over and over-!"

"If you're thinking about the same shit, whether you want to or not, you won't get anywhere." Kazuichi looked straight at Hajime, without a smile or a shifty look or anything, just a plain, stern stare. "Ibuki knew that pretty well, and she thought you could probably use that advice."

"That's easier said than done, I wouldn't be in this problem if I could just stop thinking about the exact same things." His eyes darted down to his friends' hands. Kazuichi was still holding his photo, even if it wasn't in his face, Hajime could still see it, and he just identified something else about it. "You and Ibuki are both away from the camera... did somebody else take the photo? Did..."

"Don't even get me started on Mahiru." A sudden tense tone overtook Kazuichi's words, replacing the solemn feeling he just had as quickly as he changed from anxiety to anger right before whipping out his photo of Ibuki. "Do you know about our school lives?"

"Other than I killed almost all of the Student Council and traumatized the only survivor, no." While their interactions were scarce, Hajime had talked to Future Foundation's Ruruka Ando once or twice, enough to know her name, and a friend of hers was the Ultimate School Council President, a fact she brought up immediately before segueing into Hope's Peak Academy's destruction at his hands, not letting it go until the conversation ended. "Did our lovely division head talk to you about how I blew up the school?"

"No... that was... how do I say this..." Kazuichi's emotions changed again, going to puzzled with the need to figure out how to word whatever it was he was struggling with. "Mahiru... Mahiru was interested in you. Like, interested, interested. Like like-!"

"Get to the point!" Hajime did his best to keep his voice stable, but he was sure Kazuichi could tell he was taken aback. That was a new piece of information, a new way of thinking about Mahiru Koizumi... one that probably wouldn't change a damn thing about his life anyway, because she wasn't here anymore.

"A-Anyway, you... you were already with someone? I dunno who, but apparently they were crazy enough to try and cancel the exams with a bomb..." Hajime couldn't contain his disbelief anymore, his expression going wide. He tried to reel himself in, but he was too busy thinking, just as life is. "You and Mahiru were pretty close friends, but a few things happened and you drifted away, Junko's fault, probably, but..."

"Junko broke us all, one by one, smashing our hope for the future." If Kazuichi was just feeling empathy for everyone who had to suffer because of it... that would be a damn miracle. "Is that the issue?"

"There's more to it..." Kazuichi paused for a moment, looking down, then at his arm. "You wanna know why I have this mechanical arm? I didn't just think it was cool, even though it totally is, I-I..." The mechanic started gagging at whatever thought was lodged in his head now. Unlike Hajime, he wasn't serious thought 24/7, he wasn't desensitized and done with even the basic process of thinking. "...I cut off my own d-damn arm, b-because... because-!"

"Calm down." Hajime put his hands up to tell Kazuichi to dial it back, before stopping and changing to a different motion, one far less like a sickly and distorted psychopath. "Take your time."

Kazuichi swallowed, and both he and Hajime sat in silence for a few moments. Hajime's thoughts about processing his apparent relationship flew out the window, his new focus on calming down... calming both Kazuichi and himself. Whatever this was, other than being serious, it definitely proved him wrong. Hajime almost had to swallow himself, just to keep away the guilt he was now having from being so abrasive.

"I... Mahiru and I... we ended up hanging out a bit... Of course, we may have tried to be friends, but we went together as good as shitty poisoned water and beautiful red oil." Kazuichi stopped his stuttering, even if not his pauses. "Eventually, I got so fuckin' angry, I..."

Hajime could guess what came next. It was rash to do something so drastic, but Kazuichi didn't ever think about that. He would chop his arm off without second thought if he really thought he deserved it... and wasn't scared out of his mind.

"I was already far off the deep-end at that point, I think." The mechanic had moved to chuckling a bit to get over himself, which... hurt Hajime to see. "Guess I thought paying by cutting off the arm I hit her with good enough... it wasn't enough, if anything."

Hajime didn't know what to make of that information, either, other than that Kazuichi was certainly dealing with things better than he was. The two of them fell quiet, Hajime didn't know what the other man was thinking about, but his own mind was trying to piece together the stories he was just told, and how Kazuichi possibly got through them like they were nothing.

Eventually, Kazuichi cut the silence, moving the conversation forward. "Have you gone to talk to Sonia yet?"

"No, I haven't..." As soon as he replied, Hajime realized something suspect. "Wait, how do you know about that?"

"...How do I put this... ahm... err..."

"Just spit it out."

"I-I made you breakfast and had to write that card for you this morning because you've been an ass to Sonia?" Kazuichi spewed out, immediately forgetting any thoughts of sugarcoating the issue, instead running his mouth like he usually did, complete with not even being sure if he said it right. "Like, seriously. I didn't see her this morning, so I went to her room... she was not in the mood to talk, especially about you, to put it lightly, but her eyes were pretty red and watery."

Hajime froze. It was a similar sensation to whenever he grabbed his door handle, or when he looked in the mirror, or when he woke up in the morning. It certainly drew him far away from the comfort he'd ironically achieved hearing Kazuichi's woes, almost forgetting about the situation he was in himself. A situation of a lack of feeling to do anything for no discernible reason, turning logic on its head and making the simple seem like rocket surgery. Exactly the situation he'd been in for weeks, the situation he couldn't possibly deny caused this to happen.

"Don't look at me like that! You asked me to spit it out!" Hajime hadn't meant to stare, but his face must've fell when he processed what he'd just heard.

"I'm sorry, it's... it's... I..." Kazuichi didn't do anything, Hajime just couldn't handle it. He couldn't face Sonia crying her eyes out in despair because of him.

"It's fine, Sonia's who you should be apologizing to." Kazuichi told an accidental lie, that it was okay, but he was right that he needed to apologize, if not also much more. "She's been trying to help you out to no success or even a hug for her trouble. Man, you used to say a bunch of smart things, now you're just full of contradictions. What happened?"

"I... I don't know." Hajime was still dazed from the grief he'd caused his friend... his best friend, practically. Sonia wasn't like anyone else he ever knew, even if he could exactly pinpoint why, but she was somebody who cared a lot, and almost never got the chance to let her woes out without breaking down during the class trials they had to face. "That's what I'd like to know, then maybe I can stop it or reverse it or... something."

It sounded like such a simple question, but coming out now, the statement was filled with desperation, and almost a laugh that couldn't believe this was where he was. Of course, he WAS here, and all he wanted to do now was to stop, and to apologize... and it seemed like an easy thing to do, but even if that were really true, Hajime and Kazuichi both just sat in silence once again, before the former eventually cut it over something unrelated.

"...I just realized, you didn't say "Miss Sonia" through all that." As unimportant a detail as that was, Hajime couldn't help but notice it. "You even said it when we started talking, but not just now."

"I didn't say "Miss Sonia" earlier!" Kazuichi put his fake hand to his head, trying to look innocent. "Just Sonia! Don't act like I'm a suck-up or whatever the heck you're trying to paint me as!"

"No, you definitely said Miss Sonia earlier." If he were talking to anyone other than Kazuichi, Hajime would've taken that statement as admittance... but it was Kazuichi, he would get flustered over being asked what color blood was, and probably answer pink on accident. "Are you still after her, or...?"

"I said it a thousand times during the killing game, so you're probably just used to it!" The panicked mechanic began spouting whatever came to his head to defend himself, not realizing he just dug his hole deeper. "You can't just make up me saying Miss Sonia when you were talking about something completely different!"

"I'm positive you said Miss Sonia earlier. I might've been angry, but I heard what you were saying."

"W-Well... thinking about this just shows that you're thinking about dumb stuff like you usually do!" Kazuichi tried to spin his mistake again, turning the discussion back to Hajime. "Not whatever weird existential crap, the regular stuff you used to think about, right? Just some dumb little detail!"

"I wish I could think about something other than thinking, but I can't even remember what thinking about anything else... FEELS like." Hajime couldn't even make sense of what he just said himself, but he knew he was close to right, if he wasn't... why had he woken up this morning feeling the way he did?

"Come on, you've woken up thinking about whether the Foo Fighters or the Sex Pistols would win in a fight!" Kazuichi's toothy grin told Hajime he was actually confident in his answer, he couldn't even fake one of his ear-splitting screams let alone a real ruse of being laid-back. "You told me about it... like... a week into the school trip?"

"That sounds like something you made up..." Even knowing he couldn't lie, Hajime denied it... only to doubt himself soon after. "Well, actually..."

"Told ya! Same day that happened..." Kazuichi looked away, his eyes meeting the massive device that Hajime had almost forgotten about, more specifically, the tube with a dirtied, darkened red visible through foggy glass. "...I guess that's why I remember it. That's the kinda stuff you should be thinking about, not..."

Kazuichi left his statement unfinished, but his eyes quickly darted back to those the Neo World Program didn't save. Close enough to that it had to be someone specific, someone nearly, but a less remorseful or hurt glance, more like a pitying one. Only the Ultimate Photographer and the Ultimate Lucky Student were close, and Kazuichi'd spoken his peace on the freckled, sweet Mahiru.

"...I, I don't know how to feel about Nagito." Hajime had no idea how to word how he felt, but he didn't care at all, not about the wording, not about thinking about how to word it, even, he just spoke what he needed to. His other classmates, alive or otherwise, weren't nearly as confusing or as coy about their own wants, but Nagito was only human, even if he was as good as dead, he couldn't keep up a perfect lie. "He obviously did all sorts of things to us... but he kept saying he did it all for "hope", whatever twisted vision of that he had."

"Man... what brought this on all of a sudden?" Kazuichi questioned, still speaking with a small, somber smile. "Don't tell me you came down here just because of him! I mean, sure, I've lost a bit of sleep wondering about what the hell he was thinking, but..."

"I'm pretty sure I understand what he wanted." Cracking the Nagito Komaeda puzzle was something Hajime had spent days trying to do, but he was done thinking. He'd figured it out as best as he ever would. "At least part of it, he was just a massive liar. He didn't actually care about most of us or our talents, even if he really was dedicated to his idea of what hope was."

"Really? I mean, he did go out asking us to build a statue of him..." Kazuichi was quickly swayed to Hajime's theory, also replacing his sad tone with a curious one. "Was he just jealous of people with talent? He wanted the world to treat him like a hero, and he loved doing good to achieve that?"

"I don't think Nagito just worshipped "hope" because he wanted to be it, but he definitely wanted to be recognized." It was a bit easier to word it out now, even if Hajime didn't know exactly why. He cared more? He was thinking about it less? There was no good reason? "He lived a lonely life, his parents are dead and he has no other relatives, and his luck certainly didn't help him any..."

"When'd you find out about Nagito's past?"

"He told me himself. I didn't believe all of it, or even any of it, at first, but I've seen him lie, and he didn't do it often enough to keep me fooled for the entire school trip. Apparently, he didn't really spend time with his parents when they were alive, and for various reasons he never had friends." He wasn't about to go on with Nagito's entire life story, even he probably only knew a sliver of all of the good and bad that happened to the man. "I can understand why he felt like he did, I mean, not having anyone to be proud of you or anything. He probably surrounded himself in a lie that that was what he wanted, or that it was right and just."

"Oh, uh... wow." Kazuichi was stunned almost silent, but nothing could completely halt this mechanic's speaking. "You sure know a lot about him. How much time did you spend with him, again?"

"Other than during the trials, and when we first got to the island..." Hajime tried to estimate how much time... but it was spread out over nearly a month, and that, even, was a long time ago. "I dunno, I certainly spent a few days trying to understand him, and maybe to calm him down... and we both know how that turned out."

"And I thought you and Chiaki were close..." It was true they spent time together, playing some game or another, but Chiaki actually made an effort to talk to EVERYONE, so spending a whole day with her wasn't exactly possible. "Did he say anything else about what he actually wants?"

"He said that he felt he was similar to me, before saying there was no way somebody like him was close to somebody so amazing and full of hope. I will give him he was right we were similar... with how much of an ass I am. Nagito was really good at making inferences... he was just smart in general."

"Are... You..." Hajime realized where Kazuichi's mind jumped, and prepared to speak the truth before his friend could even get a real sentence out. "Man, I always thought you had the hots for Chiaki... I guess I shouldn't be judging, but..."

"It's definitely not like that." It was all just a matter of perspective, so there wasn't much Hajime could do to reason with him beyond attempting to deny it, but that definitely wouldn't be enough. "I'm just fascinated by him. We all thought he was a massive threat to us... and he was, but even still, he seriously spoke about the "ultimate good" he was chasing, and he just wanted us to move forward, in his own warped way."

"...Alright, then, whatever you say." Hajime groaned, but gave up trying to convince Kazuichi of anything other than what he'd internalized as a fact. "You were just way quicker to defend yourself from that than when I suggested the same thing for Chiaki."

"That's because you didn't say anything about Chiaki." Implying that he and Chiaki were close was nothing like suggesting... what Kazuichi was suggesting.

"Alright, if you say so." Again, Kazuichi conceded, waiting a moment before moving on to whatever was next for their conversation. "So, uh..."

"Yeah?"

"Do you feel any better?" His friend asked him, speaking in a quiet tone, especially for his standards.

"...Yes." Hajime didn't answer lightly, but... whatever the hell magic Kazuichi Soda pulled had actually helped him instead of making his head hurt even worse. "I do."

"Sweet!" Kazuichi raised his hand and gave a thumbs up, before his expression fell as he retracted it. "I mean, uh... that's great. I'm... glad I could be of help?"

He really was, for once. For all the thinking he could have ever done, Hajime probably wouldn't have known about somebody else's pain, something he shared with them. Hell, he didn't actually know all of it, just a little bit, but he heard it. He knew it was there, and that they dealt with it, just through whatever dumb bullshit was also working on him.

"Yeah, surprisingly, did help." Hajime joked. Minutes ago, he thought Kazuichi was being a dumbass, talking about something he didn't understand, but his theory certainly changed quickly. "That said, I shouldn't be letting you ruin my perfectly good solution for calling me out on it."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?!" Kazuichi barked back, even if his expression was more surprised than enraged. "Didn't I just help you with, like, everything?! I even made you a card in my best Sonia impression, shouldn't I be getting a thank you instead!"

"So, you did it all just to feel better about yourself?" Hajime continued poking fun at Kazuichi. There was a reason or three that he never was as close with the mechanic as he was with Mahiru or Chiaki, getting out what he owed now was a step away from the school trip. "Or to get a pat on the back?"

"No, it's like... give and take! Y-Yeah, give and take!" Through the stuttering, he gave a toothy grin, but Hajime'd seen it enough to know he was bullshitting his way through confidence. Poorly. "You hang out with me and I'll help you. Isn't that what friends are for?"

"...Yeah, it is." If Hiyoko were here, she'd probably call it cheesy and dumb, with an expression that said she actually agreed... unlike Mahiru or Ibuki, or Chiaki OR Sonia, who'd all accept it immediately. If Nagito were here... he'd probably go on about how he had to right to be included in that statement. Hopefully somebody called him out on that bullcrap, Hajime was already sorting through his own.

Sorting... sorting the memories of a killing school life. Apparently he'd organized them all wrong, trying to convince himself he was stuck in a rut for some pretentious philosophical shit, with all of the non-existent benefits that came with doing that, other than hurting himself and his friends.

"So..." Kazuichi drew Hajime back to reality once again. "...Shouldn't we be, uh... going to talk to Sonia?"

"Y-Yeah!" Hajime leapt back to his feet after that sudden reminder of what he still had to do. "Dammit, I got distracted again-"

"Woah, hold on!" Kazuichi stood up right afterwards, cutting into Hajime's thought. "Wait for me, you wouldn't even know you need to see Sonia without me!"

"Alright then, come on." Hajime waved for the mechanic to follow, and the two began walking. "...Do you think Sonia might be better now?"

"Who knows." Kazuichi shrugged off the question, rather than making a guess. "But whatever it is, you owe her a visit, at least."

"Yeah... that and an apology."

Hajime continued to walk side-by-side with Kazuichi down the hallway, a sort of smile on his face, like a smirk or a small chuckle at an ironic joke, but it certainly felt more genuine. Of all the things to be thinking about, what type of smile was on his face wasn't something Hajime thought he'd be thinking about, it was pretty stupid to think about, really, but that's where he mind went at the moment. He'd been thinking about a lot of stupid things all day, really, like trying to make sense of his own head or claiming he knew what he was actually thinking, or forgetting about Sonia. That was a VERY stupid thing to think about and suddenly forget... twice. The smile on Hajime's face disappeared, although his clear head remained, and he was certainly feeling... just, better, off than before, for whatever reason.

**Author's Note:**

> Was that good? Was that bad? Bit of both? Probably the last one... certainly not perfect, but I hope you enjoyed at least some of it. Whether you did or not, I appreciate you even trying to read it. Now... I just need to go update my main fic on this website... this month. Oh, goddammit. Well, anyway, you came here for some interesting developer notes probably, so.. uh, here.
> 
> -Hajime's friendships with Sonia, Mahiru, and Hiyoko came from a combination of what I think Hajime's strongest relationships were and bias for these characters, with Sonia being my second favorite DR2 character behind Ibuki, and Mahiru and Hiyoko are both in the upper-half.  
> -Ibuki was picked as Kazuichi's friend because I needed it to be someone dead who didn't already play that role to another character and that left Ibuki and Mikan. Yeah, obvious choice. She was also jokingly never mentioned in the original, with Hajime forgetting about her, because of a joke with my friend about not mentioning her because this was (technically) a Hajime/Nagito thing.  
> -Ruruka is mentioned because 100% raw bias for the lil' bitch, and a weird headcanon I have that she and Kazuichi are friends.  
> -I had planned for every character to be mentioned in some way, I ended up never throwing Mikan or Gundham a mention, and Peko, Teruteru, and the Imposter were never referenced by name, and nothing was really done with the mention of Nekomaru.  
> -The mention of the Sex Pistols is because I've had to scour every line of dialogue Leon had from DR1 in order to make another fic of mine, and he mentioned the Sex Pistols in his second FTE, which stuck out to me for some reason. Foo Fighters was just because I like the band.  
> -I wrote about 55% of this fic in the past week, and 20% of it today.
> 
> Hope some of those tidbits are mildly interesting.


End file.
